fubo, Sling TV or FOX Soccer Match Pass: Which soccer streaming service is best for you?

Which soccer streaming service is best for you — fubo, Sling TV, DIRECTV NOW or FOX Soccer Match Pass?

For years, soccer fans in the United States have demanded the opportunity to watch what you want, when you want and how you want it. Instead of being tied to contracts with satellite TV providers or stuck with cable, now soccer fans have more choices than ever before to watch the greatest soccer games from around the world streamed to our computers, TV sets, smartphones, set top boxes or tablets.

But with more services to choose from comes confusion. Or at least an overwhelming number of choices and considerations to sort through.

To make the choice easier, we’ve identified the leading legal soccer streaming services and broken down the differences to make your decision easier. If you’re still not sure, all of them offer free trials so you can see for yourself which ones are the best choices for you.

Many have added beIN SPORTS to its programming, which means that even if your TV provider doesn’t offer beIN, you now have streaming services that bring you the best of beIN SPORTS — featuring La Liga, Serie A, Ligue Un and more.

fubo, Sling, DIRECTV NOW and FOX Soccer Match Pass comparison

Click on the logos to sign up for free trials of legal soccer streaming services (US only):

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

173 Comments

RC VictorinoFebruary 27, 2015

One important note would be that Fox will have rights to Bundesliga next year (and for a few years), right? Thus putting a real dent into GolTV (and FUBO TV for example).

Hi Marlon, FOX Soccer Plus and FOX Soccer Match Pass are almost identical with the leagues and tournaments they show. Some of the differences are that (1) FOX Soccer Match Pass is able to stream more than one game at once, so you’ll get slightly more games available via the streaming app versus FOX Soccer Plus and (2) FOX Soccer Match Pass includes Copa Liberatadores and Copa Sudamericana games, FOX Soccer Plus does not (for TV, they’re on FOX Deportes instead).

The list of leagues/tournaments they have change every once in a while, but here’s the latest list of soccer properties:

I think it’s a shame that Bundesliga is going to Fox. I tried Fox Soccer 2 Go to watch Champions League games, and it totally bites! Their streaming quality is horrendous and they don’t display the live scores or time expired during their games! Their smartphone app doesn’t even work properly and they aren’t on Roku! I constantly had to use my smartphone to see the live scores and time expired. For $20 a month? No thanks. I dumped them.

GolTV isn’t bad, their streaming is great, I have no complaints. I wish they had good Bundesliga analysis/commentary shows like how BeIn sports has for La Liga, etc., but they don’t.

DishWorld is merging into Sling TV (they are both owned by Dish satellite), it’s actually pretty good! I love it. They even have built in DVR so you can watch their games at a later time. An extremely good value if you are a fan of La Liga, Serie A, or Ligue 1.

I also like Klowd TV. Their streams are in Hi def but they don’t have DVR capability. This is where I watch my Bundesliga on GolTV. I like it, an awesome value for under $9 a month.

I haven’t tried Fubo, but I don’t think I need to since Klowd TV meets my needs until they lose Bundesliga next season. 🙁

All of these services are a great value, except for Fox. They need to get their act together! I’m shocked at how bad they compare to the rest of these services even though they are a huge company. I’m kind of disappointed that I will have to settle for them when Bundesliga arrives. What’s up?!?!?

Just FYI – Fox sports go (not fox soccer 2 go) usually streams Champions League games (whichever is on FS1). All you need to have is a friend who has a basic cable service and willing to share password :). Fox sports go can be watched on the browser/phone/tab and also have a Amazon FireTV app (no Roku yet)

I had no idea about that, thank you SO much for sharing! I used to make a new account and get the free trial or whatever deal they were having every time I wanted to watch a game on their channel–such a hassle. You just made my week!

It’s a shame the Championship in England gets no respect at all. beIN sports has the rights but hardly broadcasts any of the games lives and it’s not clear if the providers will broadcast the games from another broadcaster.

Absolutely bang on. It’s a belting league, anyone can beat anyone no matter their league position. Crowds are healthy and the atmosphere can be better than the Premier League. Standard of football is good too – bar Smokey’s hoofing Millwall.

I’ve just switched from DishWorld to KlowdTV. The UI is too basic/old-fashioned, and they don’t even have an app…but they real problem is that there’s a lot of buffering and the streaming is far from being smooth. Not to mention that it doesn’t look HD…

I used to have KlowdTV and it was great, but FuboTV is probably even better and a couple dollars cheaper. Their support is awesome too, my stream was really pixelated the other day and as soon as I sent a complaint on the little chat thing, someone cleared it up immediately!

Agreed on the fox soccer 2 go app and website, the quality is not there. Does anyone know if they are going to release an app for Roku? It gets tiring to watch their content in a computer or tablet, so it would be a huge improvement to catch matches on a TV.

You should also mention that none of those streaming services provide built-in Chromecast support within their applications. (Its understood, but not directly stated.) Also, DishWorld and Sling do not allow you to cancel their services online. Rather, you must call their customer support service center and cancel over the phone. It was relatively easy to do, but it’s still a unneeded hassle. Both fuboTV and KlowdTV allow you to do that in comparison; and I’m not sure about Fox Soccer 2Go.

Overall, I think fuboTV is a better deal than KlowdTV. It’s cheaper, allows you to watch some — not all — games on demand (which is still better than what KlowdTV currently offers), and features additional club channels (e.g., Ajax, BVB, and Everton) to the ones already offered by beIN Sports (e.g., Barca and RM) and GolTV (Benfica TV).

On a side note, Fox Soccer 2Go has yet to earn my money. I just see it as a substandard product in terms of quality (i.e., ease of use, functionality, commentary, etc.) and I can already access UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches for free using a VPN. I may be willing to pay for it next season, but it really depends on their willingness to improve their overall production quality as well as how they incorporate their Bundesliga rights which start in conjunction with the 2015-2016 season. They also have the rights to the Eredivisie as of this season, but they’re declining to broadcast matches in the US. I’m afraid that this will continue to be trend heading into next season as well. Christopher, maybe you have a better idea as to why Fox isn’t utilizing their Eredivisie property? Last season I was able to stream matches online using LiveSportTV which was at least something. Now, I have no options.

I’ve originally subscribed to Dishworld so I could watch the Asian Cup on One World Sports.

Since then I realized that I could get the PFC and additional Brazilian channels for almost the same price tag as I would on DirecTV. The same can be said for beIN Sports although I wish the beIN Espanol channel is in HD as well.

I will go with Sling now that they have a deal with Univision but it is unknown to me if the univision channels would be in HD.

I’ve recently tried FuboTV and I am really impressed with the picture quality of their streaming channels, in particular beIN sports looks far better on FuboTV than dishworld.

Fubo also has a buy-in option for Sport TV Americas, which is a channel that shows everything Portuguese footy and much more. The price for that add-on may double the FuboTV price point, but it is worth it if one cares to watch a league that is often overlooked.

I actually have Fubo and is great! The only problem is that it doesn’t offer champions Legue matches.
So, according to the list above the only channel that offers it it’s FoxSoccer2GO????
Does any other beside FoxSoccer2Go offer UEFA champions legue?
Thanks,

I have been searching off and on for a good streaming service for futbol as a US customer. I love what beIN sports offers, but I do not want to add a huge expensive sports package to my current cable company (I only have basic anyway). I decided on fubotv, and I love it so far even after only 10 minutes.

Hi Chris
You can add to your lists two main ones.
Star Sports Inia which Brings English Premier League, La Liga, Sera A, Eurpoe Cup. They might have Champions League.
You will need a vpn to access it.

I am using Bein Sports for middle east which they went through massive upgrade two days ago. it has 2 English channels there but i noticed that they added voice channel choice on all the channels, so it will be intresting to check that.
you will need vpn again.
I am using *******.com which is perfect.

Hi Chris
I think we need to dig more up about the new apple TV service that is coming soon. I hope they have all the channels that will bring everything we like to be paid in one service rather than subscribing here and there. Any ideas?

I currently have chromecast and my husband is looking for an app to watch all his futbol/soccer on it. We do not Subscribe to any cable services but want univision deportes and unimas. Sling offers it but isnt compatible with chromecast. is therean app compatible with chromecast for univision without cable?

Hello Chris. between Sling/sling Int’l and Fubo pro, which would you get? and also, i would like to be able to just stream any of those on my TV as opposed to a mac, so which player would you recommend? amazon fire tv, or Roku 2/3 ? thank you for the article.

fuboTV specializes in soccer only, but if you’re getting Sling anyway, you could use that for soccer and instead of your cable channels. It all depends what leagues/games you’re interested in seeing. I would recommend checking out the chart at the top of the page to help.

Trying to decide between Sling International and Fubo. I’m mostly interested in Serie A and the English Championship so I will mostly be watching beIN Sports. A big deal for me is watching matches on demand (live broadcasts usually don’t work out with my schedule). Which service does a better job of archiving the matches for future viewing? Also, which service would you say streams better? Thanks!

Scott, I would recommend taking trials for both of them. I have heard a rumor that fuboTV is preparing a relaunch of their website and apps that would make their on-demand games easier to find and sort, as well as their live matches.

Well for now till some better Fubo Beinspots sucks, buffering all over the place ,this guys want to make business without enough bandwidth, if is buffering right now with normal programming , imagine when Spanish La Liga games Starts,how can we pay for chan that are freezing or buffering all the time,it doesn’t make sence,they have to do something realy quick or they will go out of businesses soon, if they keep this up, it’s like you
subscribing to cable or dish net and their chan buffering or freezing all the time.If it for this we have plenty of sites with free sports games that are better than this.

I’ve signed in with NGSN for the Portuguese Liga Sagre and was watching a live low Profile Soccer game between Setubal Boavista and it was buffering all over the place, in order to get to see the game i had to lower resolution to 192P which is the lowest setting with a crappy video,i wonder if with a game that few people watch,how is gonna be with a Derby where many people watch at same time!,well i’m not taking a chance and canceled my sub
scription and moved to Fubo for Sportv Americas and the Portuguese league

I am considering moving to basic Comcast cable (which is included in my HOA) and adding Fubo Pro for all my soccer. My question is: can the matches be recorded in any way to be watched later? Is there a DVR type feature that could be used ? Thanks

Dvr doesn’t work,and compared to Espn3 ,this is nothing ,Is like 1.00 tree shop set up, and what we have doesn’t work at all ,no surprise there,the Dvr is like the Fubo live Streaming most the times unstable,nothing new , so all the family,no Sportv America DVR available either

That’s why i don’t carry any tv provider, i hate Providers,and the cause of big time piracy are NABC’s and USA government and other TV providers fault; if they would allow people to watch for a fee the English premier League they would make a tone of money and would kill most piracy on Roku and other pirate streamers,this way people like me don’t miss a game of premier league but i have to resort to piracy, not our fault but those greedy TV providers,screw them greedy TV providers, i don’t like Piracy but i’m driven to it this way..

I use Sling on a Roku 2 box and am having a great time becoming a Liga MX fan.

One minor quibble: when I view Azteca on the Sling/Roku, it comes in at a lower resolution and squarer/old fashioned screen ratio than I can get over the air in the LA area. This seems backward. Anyone know why this should be?

I think I figured out what you mean.. in terms of whether the coverage includes all games of that competition. I’ll have to think about that one some more. Not all games are televised. It might be easier for me to answer specific questions in the comments section instead of trying to put all of the possibilities in the table format.

That’s not exactly what I meant. I want channels and competitions to have yes/partial/no for each provider. Therefore, people can easily check which providers have a specific channel and competition, without having to read long lists.

Hi Chris, that’s a great post. I myself have tried most of the services, except for FoxSoccer2go. Someone here mentioned KlowdTV and noticed it has sports channels there too. Do you happen to know of another Streaming service with sports in their package service?

Fubotv doesn’t carries SportvAmericas no more,but PremiumSports.com has it,a matter fact Fubotv got SportvAmericas from PremiumSports.com, Fubotv told me so when i inquired some time ago about resolution on SportvAnmericas to be only 540P ,and they told me that it’s was not their fault but from the source at Portugal and said that Fubotv was getting Sportv Americas from PremiumSports.com,
what i don’t understand is why they say SportvAmericas was terminated world wide!,if you go to PremiumSports.com they still have it available there.

First time here. Just bought roku2 and signed up with fubo. The quality was bad with live copa america matches but now it is alright. Direct wired connection to the router fixed my problem. With n router wifi was good only when demand was low (not during live copa america match). With wired conection it was better but still had problems because I had a switch between router and roku. I needed a direct conection to fix issues. A 100 feet ethernet cable fixed my issues during high demand

Yes;pretty shame no legal streaming iptv provider carries English League besides piracy,
it’s this way this greedy tv providers want to kill piracy?i’m no fan of Piracy but i have no other way of watching the EPL.

Hi Chris
Have things changed here? Am i reading this correctly? If i get Sling blue and Orange, wouldn’t that be all soccer in one place including EPL?
I have apple tv Version 4 and that means i don’t need cable subscribption.

Hi Chris
Thanks, i noticed Fox Soccer plus is not there and i hope there will be no major soccer on it and everything will be on fox soccer 1 and 2.

I subscribed to blue and orange package and added bein sports to it. I presume that is all major soccer is now in one place finally.
Can you please confirm that i am not missing anything soccer wise?
I am intrested mainly in

Hi Oday, you’ll get all of the above with Sling Orange+Blue. There’s no FOX Soccer Plus, but FS+ has been reduced to the occasional Scottish Premier League game as well as some Bundesliga matches and overflow FA Cup games that can’t fit on FS1 & FS2, so you should be OK.

Hi Chris
Thanks for your quick reply. I raised that just like now Wimbledon tennis is on ESPN and ESPN 2 but other matches are on ESPN online which i can’t see.
I hope the 3PM EPL kick of matches will all be available on NBC Sports. Would they provide a link for each live game within the one channel logo?

You can log in to ESPN3.com or WatchESPN.com using the same Sling TV credentials you signed up with (as long as one of your packages is Sling Orange).

For the Saturday 3pm games, the ones that are on NBCSN and USA will be on Sling Blue. Starting this season, there’ll be a Friday game on NBCSN. So in all, 7-8 of the Premier League games every weekend will be shown live and on-demand via Sling Blue. 2-3 will only be available on Premier League Extra Time and NBC Sports Live Extra, which Sling Blue doesn’t provide access to.

I WANT TO KNOW WICH GAMES ARE BROADCASTED IN ENGLISH! Giving us “bien sports, or bien connect, or even fuboTV” does not tell us if the game is broadcasted in english. I want to subscribe to fuboTV on my apple TV, or maybe even subscribe to bien connect instead, only if I can watch la liga games in english. I’ve been trying for weeks to find out but everywhere i look I only get smoke and not clear answers. I won’t spend a dime if I don’t get a simple answer, and I’m starting to get suspicious that for whatever the reason, bien sports seems to want to keep this as confusing as possible. Please can I just get an answer or a US schedule with shows where, what channels, and what language it will be broadcasted for here in the US.

Does not help me one bit. Your answer is as vague as everything else I can find on the web. I had already understood that “All of the games televised on beIN SPORTS are in English. The games on beIN SPORTS en Español are in Spanish.” That information was crystal clear. What is not clear, what is as confused as possible is which games are going to be in english, and which ones are not. Having a schedule that states the game will be on “bien sports Connect’ does not answer that question, as yourself has stated “From the games on beIN SPORTS Connect, some are in English and some are in Spanish.” Well s***, I knew that, that’s why I asked/ranted in my coments. Thanks for responding though. I do appreciate it, even if my frustration with this is obvious. I’m just not going to subscribe to any service that refuses to be clear and upfront about their product. I know I’m not the only one looking for this. As far as I’m concerned, bien knows damn well people want to know these specifics, but purposely keeps it confusing in order to sucker people into signing up. Thanks for taking time to answer me.

The best you can do is tune in. Chris and WST is pointing you in the direction to go if you want to watch. Once you get there it’s up to you to do the rest. beIN can change at the very last minute of how they broadcast the games. Everyone is not responsible for doing your homework for you.

Hey Chris, I was snooping around the web a little bit and found Laola1.tv Do you know about that streaming service and if it is legal? It seems to show a ton of leagues that are not televised anywhere in the US.

Laola1.tv is not illegal, they show early round games of the Champions League and Europa League, and as well as a ton of other sports. They are a legitimate company that is based in Austria. http://www.laola1.tv/en-at/information

Domatelli, I stand corrected. Sorry! When I looked at the site, I thought it looked like one of the illegal streaming sites. Unfortunately for soccer fans in the US, there are very few games available that we can watch on Laola.

I want to watch all of Napoli’s Serie “A” (CL too) matches but BEIN only will televise certain games, and to boot Comcast does not broadcast BEIN in HD for my area. Totally dislike not watching HD soccer/football this is 2016 not 1996!

Will any of these services allow me to watch all of Napoli’s games not just high profile games?

I’m in a similar boat to you. I have beIN SPORTS on Comcast, but it isn’t in HD, so I end up watching most of the beIN SPORTS games on my computer via fuboTV because it’s HD and the picture quality is much better.

fuboTV also includes access to beIN SPORTS Connect, so you should be able to see most (if not all) Napoli games for the 2016/17 season. Stay tuned to our Serie A TV schedule at http://worldsoccertalk.com/serie-a-tv-schedule/ to see when and where the Napoli games will be on.

Hi Chris
I really hope that their TV listing get changed as it is still showing only 2 games so far which is a bit of a worry. It would be gret aif Sling integrate their login with NBC sports LIVE Extra and BeIN Sports so we can have the complete package.
Where di you get the info from in regards to the other 4 match that NBCSN will cover in your link of EPL Shedule?

Had Sling TV a year or two ago for La Liga. The picture quality/streaming REALLY was poor, poor, poor. Cancelled my service. I don’t recommend it to anyone til they get their act together and produce a decent product. Will try fubo TV.

Hi Chris. Wow, you have an amazing resource here. I want to watch PSG/Ligue 1 games and MLS games (Fire and soon-to-be MLS Minnesota FC). FuboTV tells me that these are both available but all I see so far is one Ligue 1. I had to go searching for it on beIN channel, wasn’t listed in upcoming games. I see no MLS games. Any advice?

Your best bet is to look at our Ligue Un and MLS TV schedules at http://worldsoccertalk.com/tv-schedule/ Your best bet would be to get PS Vue to watch all of those games plus USMNT and French national team matches.

Hi Chris
Just looking at the Champions League schedule on the 14th of Sep and it says will show on Fox 2Go. Is that the same as FS1 and FS2? I have the Sling tv orange and blue but doesn’t look like i will be able to see them. Unless sling tv credentials will work on fox soccer to go website?

Hi Oday, the TV schedule for the Champions League hasn’t been finalized yet, so it’ll be updated once it’s been finalized. All we know so far is that all games will be shown live and on-demand on FOX Soccer 2GO, which isn’t accessible via Sling TV.

But many of them will be on Sling TV. We just don’t know which ones yet until FOX makes a decision what games will be on FS1, FS2 and FOX Sports Net.

FOX Sports GO and FOX Soccer 2GO are two completely different products. It’s confusing from FOX, yes. But the difference is that you can watch live games only on FOX Sports GO as long as you have a TV subscription to the FS1 or FS2. With FOX Soccer 2GO, no TV subscription is required. Plus FOX Soccer 2GO gives you access to everything. And you can watch games live or on demand.

At this time, FOX Soccer 2GO isn’t available on Apple TV, but FOX Sports GO is available on Apple TV (since last week).

I’m close to dropping Sling Blue. Once again a match that was supposedly on Sling Blue [selected cities only – why?] is not available to me. Over and over again I can’t see my game on their system [luckily I have alternatives].

For the price, it’s not worth it. They have no way to record matches. They have a very small handful of on-demand items such as the god awful “men in blazers” and one or two out of date matches that were sometimes played weeks earlier.

They show one highlights show which you have to watch live as it’s not watchable later. For the on-demand programs you have to watch a lot of clutter, promo items, and I think even commercials [there’s no reason for me to ever watch the rubbish they have on-demand so I don’t exactly recall all the horrors]. All in all, it seems a very tokenistic service provided by decision makers and techs who don’t seem to have any knowledge of the sport or what its viewers really want. Thumbs down.

No mention of Sony PlayStation Vue in this comparison. For a $35 bundle, you get
BeIN Sport
ESPN, ESPN2 and access to WatchESPN
NBCSN, USA, CNBC and access to NBC Sports App
FS 1, FS 2 and access to FOX To Go App
28 day cloud DVR

I think this covers most soccer bases, but you’ll still need an antenna for NBC if you’re not in one of the target makets. $10 more, if you are. So not for everyone.

Hi guys i’m a subscriber of Fubotv, and use Roku streaming box, and i have an issue,every time i want to watch a game i have to log in with email and password which is annoying.it’s the only streaming box that does this,i’m getting mad with this,and fubotv seems not to resolve this,

If you get a chance, e-mail [email protected] and see if they can shine any light on this. I’ve noticed it a couple of times on my end too but not every single time. It could be that it’s only when the app is updated with enhancements. Not sure.

Christopher, very informative article. Thank you. Here are some comments from my own “on-demand” experience:
1. Sling Orange (ESPN) + Sports Package for $5 (or + Best of Spanish Package for $5) gets you ESPN and Bein.
-These channels put all the big La Liga games and Champions League on-demand, which is necessary for me since I can’t watch live on Tue/Wed in the US.
-You get all the key La Liga, League 1, and Serie A games from the last week or so “on-demand” within the Sling app, This is simply awesome.
-You get all the ESPN, ESPN3, and ESPN Deporte games (including some Champions League games in Spanish) on-demand via the watchESPN app (on Roku for me).
-You can authenticate watchESPN with a Sling Orange account

2. Sling Blue (Fox, FS1, FS2, NBC Sports)
-FS1/FS2 have on-demand programs (as of 4/15/17) on Monster Truck Jam, Westminster dog show, but nothing for soccer 🙁
-NBC Sports does have a game or two on-demand, but selection is very limited.
-You essentially are paying for live streaming of these channels. This is a deal breaker for me since on-demand is a must for me.
-You CANNOT authenticate NBC Sports app which has a lot of Premier League games on-demand. You also cannot authenticate Fox Sports Go app with a Sling Blue subscription.

The two streaming sites that currently offer the ability to log into NBC Sports App are DIRECTV NOW and Vue. You can use your login credentials for either service to log into the NBC Sports App and watch all of the EPL games from NBC Sports.

The only problem with watching Premiere league through these streaming services is that you can only watch 2 separate live EPL games at the same time, one from NBCSN and one from CNBC. So you have to hope that the team you support is playing in one of those channels. If you have NBCSN Gold or Cable tv subscription , you will have access to all the live EPL games online through NBCSN website.

Hello and thanks for the article. However, i wonder if there is a way to enjoy these channels in Europe. I am Greek and through vpn programs i am able to have access on these websites, but my credit card won’t be approved. Do you have any ideas? It’s really embarrassing not to be able to get subscription in these services.

One question:
Which streaming service would be the choice for Bundesliga and Championsleague streaming?
Fox Soccer match pass seems to be the best choice with only 20$/month, but I would also like to watch matches from other top leagues too. Is there another service that offers Bundesliga/CL AND other top league matches? A combination of two streaming services would be okay too.

Your best bet would be FOX Soccer Match Pass plus either Sling World Sports or fuboTV. With Sling World Sports, you would get the beIN SPORTS channels for LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue Un. With fuboTV, there would be some overlap but you would get those same beIN SPORTS channels plus another bunch of channels.

We have free guides to both Sling World Sports and fuboTV available on our website under the Free Guides section at the top of the navigation bar.